Children of Steel (44 page)

"That remains ta’ be seen," was all the
response he gave. "Break's over, get back ta’ work!" and he walked
down to the next section of equipment.

I got back to it.

The unloading took us about five days, a
little longer than one would expect normally, but it was pretty hot
and dry where the equipment was going. It seems that the
Pharaohians had decided to do their building in the desert, but
then half the planet's land mass qualified for that
distinction.

So the ground crews had to work in some
pretty extreme heat, which slowed everything down accordingly.
After we had finished, we all went through the company's local
customs briefing, which turned out to be a real eye opener.

"Okay everybody, welcome to the Tri-Star
Mining and Manufacturing Corporation's Pharaoh installation. My
name is Kareem, and I'm here to brief you on the local situation,"
began the company rep, an eagle sporting
a lot
of fancy
jewelry.

"Now first off, the political structure is
fairly simple, the King runs the country, and the priests often run
him. The planet was founded primarily by a group who worshipped the
same gods as the ancient Egyptians back on earth.

"The good news is that they worshipped animal
gods then, and still do now, so some of you are going to be in for
good treatment. Of course they also practice slavery, and rumor has
it ritual murder or sacrifice occasionally as well. Of course if
the King or one of the High priests declares you outlaw and
sentences you to death on the spot, that's it. No appeals,
nothing.

"However, unless you really go pissing
somebody off, that isn't bloody well likely. Now for the Monkeys
and the Orangutans in the group, a word of caution: Most of the
slave labor here is done by your and similar species, so watch out.
You get in trouble here, and you'll find yourself working on one of
the Pyramids or other monuments being built out in the desert, and
I don't have to tell you the survival rate isn't that high. They
send all of their criminals to work there as punishment,
both
human and animan.

"Remember also that this is a very rigid
class society, while the Bird, Dog and Cat groups may get some
special treatment occasionally, we're all still bottom shelf, so
don't misbehave. The people here are fairly nice and tolerant of
outsiders.
As long as you don't get out of line.
" He paused
for a moment and looked around the room before continuing.

"That's it, enjoy your stay," he finished and
left the room.

"Well, what do you think?" I asked Mist.

"It's not a bad place really," she replied
leading the way out of the room. "Just don't insult the Priests or
the ruling classes mostly. Cats are held in high regard, so we get
a little positive fallout from that."

"Just remember one thing," said Rudy, coming
up from behind.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Don't accept any jobs from the locals here,
even if their offer to buy out your contract is proven
sincere."

"They'd do that?" I asked Mist.

"Oh sure, they've got the largest diamond and
gold mines in the known universe here. They also make some very
interesting hardware using those diamonds and the gold."

"So why not take a contract here?"I asked
Rudy.

"You'll always be a member of a local
household, must be in fact to live on the planet."

"So?"

"Well when a major house's head dies, they
sometimes have a tendency to bury his slaves with him."

"Alive?"

"Of course alive," he said smiling, "kind of
defeats the purpose if they're dead now doesn't it?"

"People allow this behavior?" I asked
flabbergast.

"We're out on the rim of settled space Raj,
they can do damn well anything they want to here. When the King
dies they strangle his wives and bury them too. That's what the
pyramids are for."

"I hear that the human slave trade is picking
up in places like this too," added Mist. "So don't be too trusting
of the natives."

"I thought that human slavery was outlawed
through all of settled space!"

"The more thing's get spread out Raj, the
less control that Earth has over what goes on. Everything spread
out pretty fast and it’s still going. Some folks don't go along
with old mother Earth, so they do as they please. The more that do
it, the harder it gets to stop them. Especially when you're about
two hundred light years away."

"Anyway, why should we care?" laughed Mist,
"If it's good enough for us, then it's good enough for them
too!"

I had never really though of it that way
before, I wonder what humans thought about the whole thing? I'm
sure the ones who were slaves disliked it a lot more than we did.
"I wonder if they get to buy out?"

"Who?" asked Mist.

"The human slaves."

"No, I don't think so. But then, that's the
idea of slavery, isn't it?"

"Suddenly I don't feel so bad about the deal
I've been handed," I laughed.

"It really isn't that bad, is it?" smiled
Rudy.

We headed outside and started for the front
gate. As usual, most everybody else had the same idea, so there was
quite a crowd heading in that direction. We ran into Lyle, who
decided to join us too, rather than go out solo.

It was hot out,
real
hot, somewhere
past a hundred. At least it was dry, but I still found myself
panting very quickly from the heat. I noticed everybody else was in
pretty much the same condition.

"Is there some better way of getting to the
city, other than walking that is?" I asked.

"Bus at the gate," stated Mist simply,
pointing ahead.

"It's times like these that I'm glad I'm not
black!" Lyle grinned, looking up at the hot sun. "I can actually
feel where my spots are, you two must really be suffering."

We came to the gate where there was a fairly
large shaded area, Mist and myself made directly for the water
fountain, and gratefully poured water over each other. Lyle was
right; having black fur was going to no fun here.

"First thing we do, is buy some umbrellas
when we hit town," said Rudy, as we cooled down in the shade
waiting for the bus.

"I sure don't see any rain," I said giving
him a stare, "So what are the umbrellas for?"

"Shade stupid," stated Mist still
panting.

I thought about that a second, "Oh, I get it!
That's a pretty good idea.

"How do you stand him?" Lyle asked Rudy.

"He's a trial sometimes, I admit." he
snickered, "But on the other hand, everybody figures they better be
good to me, or I'll sic'im on them."

"You can be replaced by a machine you know,"
I said still panting.

"Not likely, you probably wouldn't be able to
work it!" He laughed and I chased him out into the sunlight. I
suddenly realized that wasn't a smart idea as I heated up rapidly.
As his fur was a light gray, it wasn't half so bad on him.

"I have a feeling I'm going to be receiving a
lot of abuse from him today," I said as I retreated back to the
shade.

"It’s not often I find myself with such an
obvious advantage!" Said Rudy, still grinning as he joined us again
under the awning.

The first bus came and went at this point. It
filled up before we were able to get on, but the driver told
everybody that they were sending another two out immediately.

"The merchants aren't going to let you sit
out here with all your money, don't worry!" He laughed just before
driving off.

Sure enough, five minutes later we could see
the dust trail from the arriving buses on the horizon.

The buses weren't anything fancy, but they
did have air conditioning at least. It was packed full on the trip
in and we ended up standing due to the amount of people. The trip
took a good twenty minutes, and cost a buck.

"How far is the city anyway?" I asked.

"About thirty miles," supplied Mist. "They
don't like the modern look of the spaceport or the ships marring
the look of the cities here. So everything is well back and out of
sight."

It was about that time we entered into the
city and I could see what she meant. The buildings were like none I
had ever seen before. First they were all very colorful, with lots
of bright pastels and artwork on the walls. Second the construction
was all rock, carefully cut and fit together. Third, there were a
lot of columns everywhere, but not a building over three stories
high, and not a lot of those either.

The streets themselves were all well paved
and very smooth, a light tan color so as not to become too hot I
guessed. Colorful awnings covered the entrances to the shops and
there were a good deal of street vendors under distinctive awnings
and canopies of their own in many of the places where there were
only walls off a building behind them. I noticed that along the
side streets however there were no street merchants, just here in
what was apparently the business district.

"They tend to use a lot of classical Greek
and Roman styles in their architecture, besides the classic
Egyptian ones," supplied Rudy. "Also the original settlers had a
large Mexican contingent; they were allowed to join the religion as
their ancestors used to build pyramids as well. Anyway, that
explains a lot of the colorful artwork."

"It is nice," said Lyle.

"I suppose that the Cats in some of them in
no way influenced your opinion?" Mist laughed. "Jaguars are big
with the sect that the Mexican descendents started, so you'll see
murals with depictions of them in lots of places."

"Didn't the Aztecs practice human sacrifice?"
Asked Lyle.

"I think so," Rudy answered, "But as far as I
know, the local religion doesn't allow it, so I hope it isn't being
done."

The bus dropped us off in the center of town,
and we decided the first thing would be to get something cool to
drink and maybe a little food as well. It took us about ten minutes
to find a place that didn't look too full and everybody could agree
on. Agreement became easier the longer we stood outside.

The place was nice and cool inside, not too
brightly lit either. The waiter seemed happy to see us, and it was
interesting to note that he gave Mist, Lyle, and myself somewhat
better service than he did Rudy.

"I guess there aren't any possums in the
ancient Egyptian Pantheon," I joked when the waiter was out of
earshot.

"Probably aren't any Possums on the whole
planet," he returned. "As long as the only drawback is I get waited
on last, I can live with it."

The food turned out to be pretty good, if
maybe a little different. But then I'll eat anything that doesn't
succeed in eating me first. I did notice that the waiter was a lot
more respectful to the human customers, but that didn't bother me
any. What I did find interesting was that we were the only animen
around, the four of us that is.

"How come I don't see any other ani's?" I
asked Mist in a stage whisper.

"The worker's are too low in status to serve
humans I think," She whispered back, "But I think I smell monkey
coming from the kitchen."

"Yeah I think so too. What about ani's that
are a higher class though? You think there are any here?"

"Beats me," she shrugged, "This is only my
second time here."

"What are you two whispering about?" Asked
Rudy quietly.

"How come there aren't any other animen
customers," replied Mist.

"Well, from what I heard Dave saying the
other day, the vast majority of animen here are workers, and low
class. The ones who are of high enough class are either very
pampered, or just very rare. I expect we'll see more though later
when it cools down."

"Dave's been here too?" I asked
surprised.

"Dave's been damn near everywhere I think
sometimes," he smirked.

We had finished eating by then, but decided
to sit around and have a drink or two before going back outside.
When we finally did venture out it was after four, and the heat of
the day had started to wane.

We wandered around outside for quite a few
hours after that, looking in shops of different sorts. I was amazed
at the amount of jewelers and metal smiths there were here, all of
them very skilled and turning out some really beautiful work. Rudy
told me that this was one of their major exports and I should buy
whatever I could afford. After all, in some ports I could probably
sell it for a pretty good profit.

By eight it was getting dark, and I had spent
about a thousand dollars. We had all done quite a bit of shopping;
Mist had spent several thousand at least, and was wearing most of
what she had bought. She looked real good in it too. I tried to
think of things that Cassandra would like and asked Mist her
opinion on quite a few things. I couldn't see myself wearing
anything really, but I thought that Rudy was probably right, so I'd
invest some cash too. I had enough in the ship's bank, that was for
sure. Maybe tomorrow I'd get Herza or Terease to help me pick out
some more.

As we wandered the darkening streets, the
city really started to come to life. People started to fill the
streets, dressed in all sorts of finery. We even saw some of the
local Priests. We bowed in respect and were rewarded with some kind
of a blessing; I guess the priests were only dangerous when
provoked.

I started to see animen in the streets at
that point too. What they had told us about the primates being on
the low end of things was obviously true. I saw several litters
being borne by Apes, and all of the monkeys I saw were definitely
being low key. What surprised me was when I saw a very pretty
female Jag covered in what must have been a million credits in gold
and gems, lying on one of those litters, near the foot of someone
of obvious power.

"Look at that," I said nudging Lyle, staring,
"I think we're seeing one of the pampered ones."